Former WWE Star Heath Slater Blames John Cena For Failure Of Nexus Faction

In 2010, shortly after announcing the creation of the WWE NXT brand, a new faction debuted on "WWE Raw," known as The Nexus. The group was initially led by Wade Barrett and featured a new wave of younger wrestlers, including Daniel Bryan and Heath Slater. During a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, Slater discussed the group's untimely demise, stating that the faction's fate became sealed when they lost at WWE SummerSlam 2010.

"The outcome sucked," Slater said. "When we first got there, we were going over the match finish, and we're going over. So we were like, 'Oh crap, we're taking over.' Literally, it was like an hour after doors opened, maybe — everything got changed. We're not winning anymore, we're losing."

The match in question was the main event and pitted Slater, Barrett, Darren Young, David Otunga, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield (AKA Ryback), and Justin Gabriel against Bryan, John Cena, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Edge, John Morrison, and R-Truth. According to Slater (and others in the past), the individual who pushed for The Nexus to lose was none other than Cena.

"Edge and Jericho were the ones that put the whole match together, made it make sense, and it was good," Slater continued. "Then Cena didn't like it, is the story I've heard. He didn't like it, so he wanted to change it."

Instead of The Nexus picking up the win at SummerSlam, months after their debut, Cena submitted Barrett to end the show. Once that happened, Slater felt that the group was never able to fully recover. Cena's involvement continued to hinder the group, as he went on to join them and constantly had his allegiance flip back and forth.

"I get you want to be Superman, but this story is great and now it's watered down and tainted to the point that it's not believable," Slater said. "We couldn't get the steam back after SummerSlam."

In early 2011, a new version of The Nexus debuted under the leadership of CM Punk. Some of the group split off into a faction called The Corre, while The New Nexus continued supporting Punk. Over the next six months, they slowly faded to the background as Punk's 2011 feud with John Cena heated up.

By August of that year, all that remained of the group was the duo of Otunga and Michael McGillicutty (AKA Curtis Axel), who held the WWE Tag Team Championship at the time. Upon losing the title to Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne on the August 22, 2011, episode of "Raw," The Nexus came to an end once and for all.